Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/537

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NASON.
NEBLETT.

Mayo, a direct descendant of Rev. John Mayo, the Puritan divine, who was one of the founders of the town of Barnstable, Cape Cod, and the first pastor of the Second Church in Boston. Mrs. Nason's EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON. early days were passed in Hallowed Academy, where she distinguished herself as a student, excelling in mathematics and the languages. In 1865 she was graduated from the collegiate course of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, in Kent's Hill, and spent the two following years in teaching French and mathematics. In 1870 she became the wife of Charles H. Nason, a business man of Augusta, Me., and a man of refined and cultivated tastes, and they now reside in that city. At an early age Mrs. Nason began to contribute stories, translations and verses to several periodicals, using a pen-name. "The Tower," the first poem published under her true name, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly " in May, 1874. It quickly won recognition and praise from literary critics. Since that time Mrs. Nason has written chiefly for children in the columns of the best juvenile magazines and papers. Occasionally, poems for children of a larger growth have appeared over her signature in leading periodicals. She has also written a valuable series of art papers and many interesting household articles, as well as short stories and translations from the German. She has published one book of poems, "White Sails" (Boston, 1888). Her verses entided "Body and Soul," which appeared in the "Century" for July, 1892, have been ranked among the l>est poems published in this country in recent years. Mrs. Nason devotes much time to literature, art and music, in each of which she excels.


NAVARRO, Mme. Antonio, See Anderson, Mary.


NEBLETT, Mrs. Ann Viola, temperance worker, born in Hamburg, S. C, 5th March. 1842. Six months after her birth her parents returned to their home in Augusta. Ga. Mrs. Neblett is a descendant of two old Virginia families, the Ligons, of Amelia county, and the Christians, of the Peninsula, who were originally from the Isle of Wight. Her maternal great-grandfather was a captain in the Revolutionary War and served with distinction. Her grandmother was a Methodist preacher's wife, class-leader and Bible-reader. ANN VIOLA NEBLETT. Mrs. Neblett's girlhood and early womanhood were passed in a quiet home in Augusta. The abolition of slavery and its enforcement at the close of the Civil War reduced her grandmother, her mother and herself to poverty, and, but for the aid rendered by a devoted former slave, they would have suffered for food in the dark days of 1865. In February, 1867, she became the wife of James M. Neblett, of Virginia, a successful business man. They made their name in Augusta till the fall of 1870, since which time they have resided in Greenville. S. C., where she has been an indefatigable Woman's Christian Temperance Union worker, showing great energy and executive ability. She was the first woman in her State to declare herself for woman suffrage, over her own signature, in the public prints, which was an act of heroism and might have meant social ostracism in the conservative South. After years of study and mature thought on theological questions, she takes broader and more liberal views concerning the Bible and its teachings, and is in accord with the advanced religious thought of the present time. Having been reared amid slavery, seeing its downfall and observing the negro since 1865, she believes that the elevation of the negro must come by the education of the heart, the head and the hand. Her husband died 28th December. 1891, after a long illness she had sustained and encouraged her in her charitable work throughout their married life.


NEVADA, Mme. Emma Wixon, operatic singer, born in Nevada City, Cal., in 1861. Her maiden name was Emma Wixon, and in private